The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Really Surprised!

Good idea lost in the noise

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Not very original. But intelligent. Decent story for a giallo. Good Production – Cinematography, Acting, Music, etc.One of the best parts is when the cop visits the blind piano player and says "I hope you can set a light on it" – It's dialogue like this that adds to the intelligence of the story. It furthers the film.A few questions: 1) Who were the 3 people that helped the car victim? 2) What happened to the butler toward the end of the movie? 3) Why did the blind guy follow the husband to the abandoned factory? The shower scene at the end was a shocker. The victim was very helpful to the piano player and she doesn't survive.The ending reveal was just OK. Most reviewers state that this movie copies form other movies. This is true. I don't mind that too much.Professional production. Very good local scenes from the period. Main actor was very good, and the supporting actors were all decent. Cinematography was good. I didn't like the editing for the kills.Nothing very special here. But still the rating is a C, or 5 stars.I would rather see this film than the garbage made by Argento. I hate Suspiria, the most overrated, amateur pile of garbage ever released. Incredibly poor writing, acting, dialogue, scenes, God awful cartoon lighting, cinematography, disgusting, incomprehensible plot (cult witches in a German ballet school?!). Watch the scene again when the blind guy gets torn apart by his dog. Fake Dog! Watch the scene when the professor/expert reveals the witches to the main character. Suspiria is truly garbage movie. I tried to watch again and take notes on every scene, so I can write a true tear down of this trash. I only made it about 15 minutes. I recently watched Four Flies, another amateur, trash, garbage acting, and story. Plumage – trash. I just cannot understand the people who enjoy or elevate this trash to royalty. Argento is crap. Bava – maybe a bit better, but still garbage. The only reason to watch 5 Dolls for an August Moon is to see Edwige Fenech. I saw Blood and Black Lace last year. This was an OK movie. But I didn't think it was great. Here's another pile of garbage boring nonsense movie that somehow has a cult following: What Have You Done to Solange? So, the facts are opinions are like a..h…., everybody's got one. My opinion is if you venture to produce art, I require a professional product. The Crimes of the Black Cat is not the most original movie, but it is entertaining and it is professionally done. Argento and Bava – NOT. People who love these clowns dismiss and make excuses for their incompetence. Lack of story, bottom of the barrel acting, crappy editing. They dismiss all this and say, yeah but look at the scenes and the inventive kills and scenery. So, if you bought into the Argento and Bava superiority, you know who you are, then congratulations!

Sergio Pastore's giallo outing is a skillful attempt at the genre, lacking originality but making up for this in technical proficiency, a solid mix of genre ingredients, and provoking some fine performances from the Italian cast. The typically complex plot involves blackmail schemes, a circus, a pet shop owner, drugs and an offbeat motive for the crimes which all makes sense in the crazy logic that the giallo film offers. Lots of naked female performers and some brutal murders contribute to the film's exploitation level, but it really succeeds in the story and characters which are above average and make things watchable.Particularly good is Anthony Steffen (a spaghetti western regular, then moving into giallo/crime flicks) as the blind composer, Peter Oliver, who investigates the crimes, investing his character with both intelligence and charisma to boot. Although obviously moulded on Karl Malden's character in Argento's THE CAT O'NINE TAILS, Peter Oliver is a great lead and shows off his skills in the cat-and-mouse games of the double finale in which he manages to outwit not one but two would-be murders and save his skin. Speaking of the end, it's heavily indebted to 23 PACES TO BAKER STREET, but still suspenseful.The supporting cast is uniformly good, in particularly Umberto Raho shining as the comedy relief butler/chauffeur who has some fine exchanges with Steffen. Then we have regular performer Giacomo Rossi-Stuart adding another shifty suspect character to his resume and the likes of Sylva Koscina, Renato De Carmine, and Shirley Corrigan literally filling out the parts of the female characters, who are more interesting and fleshed-out than the typical victimised women appearing in gialli films.The various set-pieces are handled with skill, including a death-by-train (also from the Argento movie) and an exceptionally nasty shower murder to boot. There's even a fashion house, which appears to be closely modelled on the one in Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. Although there are a few moments of artistic excess (zooms and repeated shots in the early murders) which turn things laughable, the film mostly holds together well and is quite gripping in spots, and if not always gripping then always interesting. The black cat of the title is a mangy moggy trained to kill but is a rather underused motive; instead, jealous and twisted humans are the perpetrators of the sadistic crimes, as per usual.

A blind pianist overhears a suspicious conversation in a bar. Shortly afterwards his girlfriend is mysteriously murdered. This leads to a series of serial killings that have some connection to a fashion house.The above synopsis is one that you could come up with if you were to toss a dozen giallo scripts in the air and see what random parts fall onto your head. In fact, this film borrows elements from several popular gialli from the time. Throw in adultery, blackmail, an enigmatic drug addict, lesbians, fashion models and dark secrets from the past and you have the makings of a typical effort. However, this movie does have some tricks up its sleeve to differentiate itself from all others. Chief amongst them being what is perhaps the most insane method of murder ever devised. I won't spoil it for first time viewers but it is truly deranged. In addition to this there is also a mind-bogglingly vicous shower murder that comes out of the blue and genuinely shocks. Further strangeness comes with the fact that the blind protagonist appears to be working on a score for Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. We see clips from this film on a couple of occasions, which is rather bizarre.Everything is wrapped up at the end with an explanation that I found completely baffling. But, that's hardly a surprise in these flicks to be fair. At the end of the day, it couldn't be said that this is exactly a prime example of the genre. But it still remains entertainingly batty and does have some visual flair and some good set-pieces. It's unfortunate that the current legitimate DVD release appears to be a non-anamorphic copy of a VHS tape though. A better transfer would improve this one.

Fashion models are dying mysteriously by a heart attack after encountering a wicker basket containing a cat which leaps upon them. One of those victims, was the lover of a blind composer she duped for ambitions in the modeling world, yet he will seek her killer putting his own life to great risk.That blind composer, Peter Oliver(Anthony Steffen)wishes to find the murder of his ex-lover for whom he deeply cared for, despite her faults at bedding other men who could assist in her rise as a top model in the fashion world. In a restaurant bar, Peter overhears a conversation between the mysterious white-caped drug addict, Susan(Giovanna Lenzi), wearing a talisman(..with an eyeball in it's center)and another whose male voice is a whisper loudly giving instructions. This conversation, interrupted by a jukebox's rock music, is of major importance in the murders that will occur during the film's running time. Being blind, of course, has it's disadvantages(..perfect for exploiting in a giallo thriller-mystery where twists and turns pull the rug out from under the viewer who are, in a sense, blind as well)so Peter will need assistance from chauffeur/employee Burton(Umberto Raho)and his lover Paola's(Isabelle Marchall)roomie Margot(Shirley Corrigan)who works at the fashion studio. Françoise Ballais's(Sylvia Koscina) studio is preparing for an upcoming Autumn line in Hamburg, and her dashing "husband", Victor(Giacomo Rossi-Stuart), quite the ladies man bedding the models under her employ secretly, manages things during such a busy time of the year. The studio faces a crisis that throws their lives into a tailspin, Harry(Romano Malaspina)who has his own photography studio(..and was the slain Paolo's cousin)has incriminating pictures of Victor in bed with the victim. When someone stabs Harry in the throat with a knife, he becomes a leading suspect. Meanwhile other models who have incriminating evidence against Victor die in almost the same fashion as Paolo, a wicker basket yielding a cat results in their deaths by heart attack. The film follows Peter and company as they try to find the one(s)responsible for the murders as they compile.This has everything I desire in a giallo thriller. The convoluted story keeps piling on the twists. Susan, the lady with the white cape, is my favorite revealing mystery..she's given an interesting development, and is quite a tragic character, who is revealed layer by layer, for as she is given exposition we are lead closer to identifying the murderer. As I've come to expect, this giallo gives us another wild plot twist at the end after it seems like we've established who the killer is. The reveal off-sets the vicious knife slashing of a character we care for, brutally displayed showing the blade as it penetrates the flesh as she cries in agony and dispair with nowhere to escape. As usual we have our amateur sleuths, these civilian detectives who actually discover just as much, if not more, than Inspector Jansen(Renato De Carmine)and his police. While the DVD print of this film is of lesser quality(..it looks as if the film is directly lifted from the film stock without the usual "touching up" that many giallo thrillers have enjoyed in the past, getting the treatment with a lavish quality transfer, enhanced beautifully for the viewer), I think the film will be a lot of fun for giallo fans who expect certain things that "7 Shawls of Yellow Silk" will give them. There's nudity, some gratuitous camera glides down the naked backs of women taking showers, and stylish camera angles and uses of light & shadow. The expected red herring or two is here as well. Couple all this with a blind hero who must use his other senses(..including his intellect)to figure out specifics with the help of his friends, and you have quite the adventure.-Spoiler paragraph- I like the touch of how the models die. Wearing yellow shawls containing a liquid repellent that sends the wicker basket cat into a frenzy, whose claws contain poison once they scratch, is such a nifty little way of adding something new to the giallo instead of the typical knife stabbings(..although they are included as well). I am torn regarding the episode at the Glassworks where a certain individual, possibly the killer, leads our hero into a most certain doom making stupid decisions that give Peter time to remain alive as the police close in...why would this person not just kill him and get it over with? Yes, I will admit that this sequence is incredibly tense as Peter, blind as a bat, tries to thwart the other's plans of killing him, but still..